American Airlines Group and JetBlue Airways Corp. will defend their partnership in a trial starting this week against government allegations that they are squelching competition in New York and Boston and harming consumers throughout the country.
The Justice Department, along with six states and the District of Columbia, filed an antitrust lawsuit last year to block a 2020 agreement between the two airlines to sell seats on one another’s flights along certain routes, pool airport slots, coordinate schedules and share revenue from flights within the scope of the partnership in the Northeast.